1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to printers in general, and in particular to a printer for performing three-dimensional printing.
2. Description of Related Art
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a process of making a 3D solid object through an additive process, in which successive layers of material are laid down based on a digital model. Three most commonly used 3D printing methods are stereolithography, selective laser sintering and fused deposition method.
A 3D printer typically includes an extruder (or print head) having a nozzle. A build material, which originates from an upstream feed of a raw polymer in the form of a filament, is fed into an upper region of the extruder as a solid. After being melted within the extruder, the filament exits the extruder in its molten form via the nozzle in a continuous stream. The melted filament can be deposited onto a build platform layer-by-layer. By adding hundreds or thousands thin layers of build material on top of one another, a 3D solid object is created.
Typically used for prototyping, 3D printing is considered a distinct field in the area of injection molding of raw plastic materials.